Virgin wall point - what is the white cable used?

zoho · 31-01-2012, 15:01

Hi there,

I rent a ground floor flat. I believe the previous tenants had Virgin installed as in the living room there is 1 socket for cable (seems to be a female F plug) and 1 socket for a regular external aerial connection.

We only have Freeview, and the aerial socket in the living room works fine for that.

Now the problem; we wish to use a 2nd tv in the bedroom, but an indoor aerial does not pick up any Freeview signal (bad reception area). I looked for another external aerial socket or lead in the bedroom but there is none.

I have noticed a white box on the wall which is Virgin branded. I pulled the box off and there is a lead inside protruding from the wall. I attach a picture of this lead. It looks like it has been botched to have a male F plug ending. I suspect it was originally a regular coax ending. I don't know where this white cable leads to.

My question is, can I do anything with this white cable in the bedroom? Can replace the F plug with a coax ending, and would this give me a Freeview signal on my TV? Or is this white cable some kind of internal Virgin cabling?

Many thanks!

BenMcr · 31-01-2012, 15:06

It's internal VM cabling by the looks of it for an additional STB or modem in that room

zoho · 31-01-2012, 15:31

Thanks for the reply, not the answer I wanted though

So that means it's useless to me? Can't jiggle it to get an aerial connection?

jb66 · 31-01-2012, 15:58

Nope

qasdfdsaq · 31-01-2012, 17:08

It could easily carry a TV signal if you connected the other end to an ariel - or a signal amplifier and hook it to your main outlet.

zoho · 01-02-2012, 08:51

I wonder if it would indeed carry a TV signal... Nice thinking, thank you.

If I connect the VM socket in the living room to the external aerial socket in the living room then surely the TV signal should be carried to the VM point in the bedroom? (if it is internal VM cabling in the bedroom and not an external aerial)...

I may have to give this a go.

nodrogd · 01-02-2012, 12:32

If you are in a flat the female F plug in the lounge could easily be for satellite. If you could post an image we might have a better idea.

If it is a VM connection, there will be a splitter somewhere which connects the lounge/bedroom to the incoming drop. This would need to be taken out for what you are suggesting to work, as the two outputs would be isolated from eachother.

zoho · 01-02-2012, 12:54

I attach a pic of what the lounge set up looks like...

If I was to try and connect the VM point in the bedroom to the TV as an aerial, is this the correct shopping list I will require?

1x F Female to Coax Female Adaptor
1x Splitter (M to FF)
1x F Male to Coax Male Flylead
1x Coax Male to Coax Male Flylead

My thinking is that the Adaptor + Coax Flylead would turn the VM point in bedroom into an aerial that can be connected to the TV. And the Splitter + F-Coax Flylead will connect the living room VM point to the living room aerial point.

Hope that makes sense, I am a total n00b to all this...

nodrogd · 01-02-2012, 15:14

From what I can see this probably was a satellite output that has been converted to cable use.

Before you go buying anything, if it was a Virgin connection the two points will not be directly linked. They will have been connected in one of two ways.

1) The point in the lounge is the master feed, and would have had a splitter wired to it inside the room, one connection going to a TV box and the other connected within the flat, in which case the bedroom connection has now been removed (unless you can find where it used to emerge in the lounge).

2) The Lounge & Bedroom were fed from a splitter inside or outside the flat. The splitter will allow signals to pass through Virgin's feed from the two cables, but there will be a high resistance between the room feeds. This splitter must be removed and the two ends connected together for you to use it as a room to room feed. It will also stop any interference with Virgin's network, which by the way, also uses the TV frequency range for their own services.

zoho · 01-02-2012, 15:27

I see... Thank you for the info.

So this basically means I'd have to go digging around inside the walls etc? There are no other wires hanging loose anywhere or any marks on any of the walls indicating that there used to be a hole. So I think explanation 2 is more likely.

In any event I would have to get up on the roof to find the external splitter or dig into the walls to find the internal splitter?

None of those options are viable... I guess I'll never have a TV signal in my bedroom then

Thank you very much for your help, regardless. Much appreciated.